A Washington, D.C. city council member posted a video to his Facebook on Friday in which he purported Jewish bankers were responsible for controlling the weather.

District councilmember Trayon White Sr. reacted to a brief snowfall in the district Friday with anti-Semitic rhetoric, posting a video to his social media page where he warned D.C. residents to look out for climate manipulators, like the Rothschilds.

“Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation,” White said in the video. “And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.”

All police officers should be allowed to carry Tasers, according to the man in charge of armed police in England and Wales, in a move that would end two hundred years of unarmed policing in the UK.

Simon Chesterman, firearms lead for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said he would not want to be on a frontline patrol without a Taser.

Mr Chesterman, who is also deputy chief constable of West Mercia said he hopes for a roll out of the weapon and ‘if an officer wants to carry it and they can meet the standard, they should be allowed to carry it’.

His comments come a year after the terrorist attack on Westminster.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, he stressed the decision was for individual chief constables but it would serve as protection for police officers.

The Taser works by firing two 50,000-volt needle-tipped darts to incapacitate its target.

The use of the weapon has been controversial and police use of Tasers has previously killed people in the UK.

Jordan Begley died in 2013, aged 23, after being Tasered by Greater Manchester Police officer.

A spokeswoman for South Carolina’s biggest school district explained Friday why the district marked students as having cut class if they attended the Wednesday walk-out.

Approximately 1,000 students from Greenville County Schools will be marked as having cut class during the gun control protests Wednesday, according to information obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The district schools around 77,000 students, reported The Associated Press.

“Walking out of a secure building at a highly publicized, designated time to call for greater gun control seemed to us to provide an easy target for someone in an unstable frame of mind,” Greenville County Schools spokeswoman Teri Brinkman told TheDCNF. “To have such an event occur at 34 locations across our district (middle and high school sites) stretched both district and law enforcement resources too thin for our comfort.”

Seventy-three years ago on the island of Iwo Jima, Hershel “Woody” Williams randomly chose several fellow Marines to give him rifle cover as he made a one-man charge with his flamethrower against a network of Japanese pillboxes.

He spent four hours unleashing flames into the pillboxes that had stymied advance for days, racing back to the Marine Corps lines to refuel the flamethrower, and then running again into battle — all while covered by only four riflemen.

Williams was ultimately awarded the Medal of Honor on Feb. 23, 1945, for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty,” as the official citation describes it. He “daringly went forward alone to attempt the reduction of devastating machinegun fire” coming out of reinforced concrete pillboxes, on which bazooka and mortar rounds had no effect.

At one point, Williams mounted a pillbox, stuck the flamethrower’s nozzle through an air vent and killed the enemy within it.

Two of the Marines covering Williams died that day, but he never knew their names, and never knew where their remains rested until just a few months ago.

On Saturday, Williams, with the Medal of Honor hanging around his neck, stood over the Hawaii grave of Charles Fischer, one of those “guardian angels” who helped him survive that day and is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, nicknamed the Punchbowl.

He saluted the Marine, who died a private first class that day, and then slowly bent down and placed a purple lei upon his headstone.

“I have always said I’m just the caretaker of it,” Williams said later of the Medal of Honor. “It belongs to them. They sacrificed for it. I didn’t.”

The Disneyland security guard who for years has personally thanked veterans for their service at the theme park’s daily Flag Retreat Ceremony has been silenced.

The voice of Marine Corps Sgt. Ernie “Gunny” Napper has been gagged in favor of a recorded message thanking veterans for their time in the military, the Los Angeles Daily News reported Thursday.

“To all who stand here today and have served our nation, on behalf of Disney Resorts and our grateful nation, thank you for your faithful service to America,” the 68-year-old Napper would say after he lowers the flag.

But beginning about three weeks ago those thanks have been coming out of a faceless loud speaker, the paper reported.

Not everyone is happy.

“They’re sterilizing a very personal, powerful part of that ceremony where Gunny connects with the veterans,” Susan Emslie told the paper. She is a self-proclaimed first-generation Disney kid who was in the park the first week it opened in 1955.

“It breaks his heart to know he has to stand there silent now,” she said, referring to Napper.

“Progress is great, but sometimes sad when traditions are changed — Gunny Ernie Napper was one sharp dude, but he’s a Marine and Marines are totally sharp,” California military vet Gary Washburn wrote on Facebook Saturday.

Disney Resorts told the paper the change was made so those who attend the ceremony won’t have trouble hearing.

“For a more consistent guest experience, and to ensure all guests can hear the remarks at the Flag Ceremony, a new, pre-recorded message thanks those who have served,” a spokesperson said.

Napper, who served 21 years as a gunnery sergeant from Vietnam to the Gulf War, has been a part of the Flag Retreat Ceremony since 1992, when he started working at Disneyland in Anaheim.

Back then hardly anyone was around when the flag was taken down for the night.

The paper reported that the crowds grew after Napper convinced the VIPs — Mickey and Minnie, Cinderella and Snow White, Donald Duck and Alice in Wonderland — to stop by the flagpole at sunset and bring the kids and their families with them.

Washington (CNN)Pennsylvania’s Republican Party is asking for an investigation into Tuesday’s special election.

The party has asked the Pennsylvania secretary of state to look into “a number of irregularities” it says occurred during voting in the House race between Republican Rick Saccone and Democrat Conor Lamb.

Lamb has claimed victory in the race over Saccone, and holds a narrow lead of fewer than 700 votes. CNN has not projected a winner in the race.

In a letter, Pennsylvania GOP general counsel Joel Frank said there had been complaints of voting machines not being calibrated, voters not appearing on voter rolls, questions over website information on polling places, and notice of overseas and military voting.

Republican Jeff Flake delivered a speech Thursday at the annual ‘Politics and Eggs’ event at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire. Flake said that during the administration of President Donald Trump, conservatives were an endangered species and the Republican Party had surrendered to a “propaganda-fueled dystopian view.”

Flake, who recently called for a 2020 Republican primary challenger against President Trump, is in the group of people who might do just that. “I haven’t ruled it out,” he told CNN later in this same day.

“I stand before you today the rarest of species,” the retiring moderate Republican said at the start of his speech. “The American Conservative.”

“Americanus Never-Trumpus, subgenus RINO,” he joked. “There is a scurrilous rumor afoot that we’re not only rare but endangered. I don’t believe it!”

“But seriously, when the putatively conservative party loses its grasp on the meaning of basic terms –basically, the word conservative– that could just be a sign we’ve taken a wrong turn,” he said. “Say, hypothetically in 2018 we have a libertine budget-busting president who exudes chaos and dotes on authoritarians, who has replaced the State Dept. with Twitter, lives in a golden palace when he’s not at the White House, and he’s the conservative… And I’m the RINO.”

“The amazing thing is that in Washington right now, among people in my party, when you hear those two comparative profiles, people will say… yeah what’s the problem? It is like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. What have we done with all the conservatives?”

Former assistant FBI director James Kallstrom suggested Sunday morning that the constant shifting of high-ranking government officials over the last year is related to an internal plot to help Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.

“I think we have ample facts revealed to us during this last year and a half that high-ranking people throughout government, not just the FBI, high-ranking people had a plot to not have Hillary Clinton, you know, indicted,” Kallstrom said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo.”

Kallstrom, who worked at the FBI for 27 years, was responding to Bartiromo’s question about whether he thought that someone in the FBI was directing officials to protect Clinton.

“Do you think somebody was directing them or do you think they just came to the conclusion on their own, this leadership at the FBI and the Department of Justice, that they wanted to change the outcome of the election?” Bartiromo asked.

The City Council in Orange County’s second-smallest city is scheduled to vote Monday, March 19 on an ordinance that calls for exempting itself from the California Values Act, SB54, a new law that limits cooperation between law enforcement and immigration authorities.

The state law, which took effect Jan. 1, “may be in direct conflict with federal laws and the Constitution of the United States,” reads the proposed local law.

Stating that council members have taken an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution, the ordinance says the council “finds that it is impossible to honor our oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States” and at the same time be in compliance with the new state law.

The proposed ordinance might be the first local attempt in California to officially challenge the law, said Kathleen Kim, a Loyola Marymount University law professor who specializes in immigrants’ rights and human trafficking.

The proposed ordinance contains “flawed argument,” Kim said Friday, March 16. The new state law is “absolutely consistent with the U.S. Constitution,” she said.

Annie Lai, co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at UC Irvine, said Los Alamitos is inviting a lawsuit if the ordinance is adopted.

“It looks like they’re setting themselves up for litigation,” she said.[…]

Some residents welcome the proposed law.

“Everyone holding elective office takes the same oath to uphold the laws to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It doesn’t say unless the state legislature decides otherwise,” said Art DeBolt, a longtime community activist, via e-mail. “I do believe somewhere in our history, we fought a war to prevent states from ignoring the law of the land and preserving the union.”

The Los Alamitos City Council is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Monday at 3191 Katella Ave.

An elementary school in Denver, Colorado, has decided to replace punishment with yoga instruction.

Doull Elementary School in Denver has stopped giving troublesome students detention in favor of yoga classes because staff found that the same kids had been repeatedly getting into trouble.

“It wasn’t really changing kids’ behavior. It was a place for them to be for an hour, but we found the same kids were coming back, kind of making the same bad choices over and over and the same kids were returning to detention,” Doull Elementary School psychologist Carla Graeber told KUSA.

Instead of sending troublemakers to the principal’s office, the school sends them to Ms. Trini Heffron, the school’s hired yoga instructor.

“They are always open to practice, to play. We can get loud and we’re quiet, and then we practice in poses, and we sit down and we rest, and we meditate,” said Ms. Trini. “And they’ve been using the practices that we learn here in the class.”

Iceland must be pleased that it is close to success in its program of genocide, but before congratulating that nation on its final solution to the Down syndrome problem, perhaps it might answer a question: What is this problem?

To help understand why some people might ask this question, consider two examples of the problem. One is Agusta, age 8, a citizen of Iceland. The other is Lucas, age 1, an American citizen in Dalton, Ga., who recently was selected to be 2018 Spokesbaby for the Gerber baby food company.

Now, before Iceland becomes snippy about the description of what it is doing, let us all try to think calmly about genocide, without getting judgmental about it. It is simply the deliberate, systematic attempt to erase a category of people. So, what one thinks about a genocide depends on what one thinks about the category involved. In Iceland’s case, the category is people with Down syndrome.

This is a congenital condition resulting from a chromosomal defect. It involves varying degrees of mental retardation (although probably not larger variances than exist between the mental capabilities of many people who are chromosomally normal — say, Isaac Newton and some people you know).

It also involves some physical abnormalities (including low muscle tone, small stature, flatness of the back of the head, an upward slant to the eyes) and some increased health risks (of heart defects, childhood leukemia and Alzheimer’s disease).

Average life expectancy is now around 60 years, up from around 25 years four decades ago, when many Down syndrome people were institutionalized or otherwise isolated, denied education and other stimulation, and generally not treated as people.

Democratic Illinois Rep. Danny Davis thinks Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a notorious racist and anti-Semite, does “outstanding work” but doesn’t agree with Farrakhan’s positions that white people are “devils” and Jewish people are satanic.

That’s what Davis told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a phone interview on Friday evening. Davis also said that black politicians refrain from weighing in on Farrakhan in order to help their electoral chances.

“I disagree with Minister Farrakhan in terms of white people being devils and Jewish people being satanic, and so I disagree with him saying that. But I also protect his right as a free individual to say and do whatever he wants to do, but I disagree with that statement. I know Minister Farrakhan, I’ve been to his house, I got the permit for the Million Man March. So I disagree with that statement, but other than that, I think he does outstanding things for, especially for blacks who are unsure about themselves, people who’ve been in prison,” Davis said.

CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta has been complaining recently about not being called on during the press briefings for his questions.[…]

On Friday, Sanders held a briefing and Acosta was nowhere to be seen as he was out on vacation. However, his replacement, Senior White House Correspondent Jeff Zeleny, who was also sitting in the exact seat Acosta usually occupies, was called on twice.

He was first called on by Marc Short, the Director of Legislative Affairs, where he asked, “How many more confirmation hearings can this Senate withstand as it leads to other potential personnel announcements?”

hen Sanders took back the podium and gave Zeleny yet another question, in stark contrast to how she has been treating Acosta since his complaining began. He asked, “Why is it that there is still a need for change inside the president’s cabinet or among his circle of advisers?”

Sanders answered, “You want the right people for the right time. As policy priorities change, that means that sometimes you’ll have personnel change. That’s not different for this administration as it has been in any other administration. And we’re going to add new staff regularly.”

An 80-year-old cancer-stricken Los Angeles nun says she’s so broke that she doesn’t know where her next meal will come from — because Katy Perry bought the sister’s convent for some $14 million, setting off a take-no-prisoners legal battle.

Sister Rita Callanan is one of the last nuns still living at the Convent of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary — where she thought she’d live until her last days, London’s Daily Mail reported Saturday.

Then the “Firework” singer tried to buy the property from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, headed by Jose Gomez. He claims to own the convent and sold it to Perry in 2015, according to the report.

As Tom Izzo was about to take the podium Saturday at Little Caesars Arena, Michigan State interim president John Engler had a tense back-and-forth exchange with a reporter about the ongoing sexual assault controversies that have engulfed the university in recent months.

The former Michigan governor blasted ESPN for its own problems with sexual assault cases, nearly two months after the network ran a story in the wake of the Larry Nassar sentencing detailing allegations into Izzo’s basketball program and Mark Dantonio’s football program.

“The 50,000 students on campus are going to class, and they want a safe environment. I think you have a safer environment today, and with the changes we are making, we’re making significant progress,” Engler told a small scrum of reporters. “That’s very much to the good and that response to the larger national debate that ESPN is wrapped up in.

“Look at the sexual assaults you guys are dealing with as a company. It’s pretty serious. In many ways, their company is one of the worst offenders in the nation. So we have a sexual assault challenge in America today. But for Michigan State, we’re dealing with it on our campus.”

According to the Associated Press, a lawsuit filed in federal court earlier this month by a former ESPN employee alleges the network has a culture of sexual harassment and then ostracizes women who complain about it.

ESPN reporter Dan Murphy followed up and asked Engler, “Do you not think Michigan State is one of the worst offenders of sexual assault right now?”

Engler answered, “Oh, I think ESPN is far worse than many companies in America today.”

Murphy countered, “That’s not the question I asked you. Do you think Michigan State is a worse offender of that?”

The Women’s March is losing staffers and supporters in reaction to an ongoing anti-Semitism controversy that has seen the group’s co-founders refuse to condemn Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Former Women’s March social media director Alyssa Klein quit last week, some regional branches have condemned leaders’ refusal to speak out against Farrakhan, and other activists are cutting ties with the group, the New York Post reports. After co-founder Tamika Mallory refused to denounce Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic comments at his annual Saviours’ Day address, Klein tweeted the group was “turning a blind eye” to hatred.

“I respect loyalty,” she said. “I do not respect unquestioning loyalty. Especially if it means attacking those who are asking legitimate questions. And especially if it means turning a blind eye to the hate spoken about a group of people.”

At least a dozen possible Democratic presidential candidates have begun bolstering their teams by adding aides with campaign experience to their Senate staffs, personal offices or 2018 reelection payrolls.

The hires are never explicitly advertised or designed to be about 2020. But the behind-the-scenes shuffle is a long-overdue stage in the traditional precampaign scramble. Potential candidates who have run before — like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden — largely have their core teams in place.

Yet in many other cases, chiefs of staff and senior strategists are now actively looking for new talent after receiving clear instructions from their bosses: I don’t know whether I’m going to run for president, but do everything you need to do to get me in position, just in case.

Recent moves have come in a variety of forms. Some consultants are working more than ever with potential candidates who are first up for reelection in 2018. Barack Obama’s former top digital strategist, Joe Rospars, for example, has been helping Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s team.

In other cases, aides who would likely be expected to play large roles in potential 2020 campaigns have moved on to top-tier midterm races for this election cycle, sometimes in a bid to gain even more experience. Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s longtime aide Michael Halle is now running a gubernatorial campaign in Ohio.

And still other potential candidates have brought campaign veterans into their official offices: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker recently hired Tamia Booker (no relation) — Hillary Clinton’s national African-American outreach director in the 2016 general election and a veteran of the Obama administration and the 2016 Democratic convention — as his deputy chief of staff.

“Given the number of potential candidates running in 2020, it’s even more necessary to start early, because the political consultants tap out: There’s only so many of them. It’s a race to get the quality folks,” said Patti Solis-Doyle, the Democratic strategist who managed Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2008. “It takes time to pull the team together: It takes time to really figure out whether you have the potential resources to run a national campaign, whether that’s national political support or the ability to raise money on a national level.”